ARLINGTON, Texas  Taking into account that they don’t gameplan for these exhibitions nor make the adjustments they would in the regular season, the Chargers staff will, in the words of Norv Turner, “coach this game hard” in film sessions this coming week.

The exhibition at Cowboys Stadium that was almost an afterthought to a long, hot week here will be broken down by the Chargers for an early fumble they were fortunate to not lose and for too often not getting off the field on third down defensively, not to mention allowing the Dallas Cowboys an abundance of rushing yards in the first half.

But, too, and perhaps moreover, the Chargers will remember this nationally televised 20-7 victory as their rebirth as a team that can actually literally steal a victory.

“It’s great to be a part of working as hard you can and things working out the way they can,” said free safety Eric Weddle, whose interception was the first of three takeaways by the Chargers. “You know it’s going to pay off if we keep doing it.”

Ryan Mathews scored on a brilliant 15-yard run through two would-be tacklers, and Vaughn Martin and Corey Liuget continued to tear up the summer. Some position battles intensified.

But perhaps most significantly, a team saw fruit from its daily harvesting.

Takeaways have been the emphasis the past three-plus weeks – with daily drills to start practice and constant preaching throughout – for a team that forced just 23 turnovers in 2010, ninth-fewest in the league.

“That’s what the coaches have been coaching,” said safety C.J. Wallace, who scooped up a fumble forced by linebacker Jonas Mouton in the third quarter. “We came out and executed it.”

And, for the record, Weddle was right. Teams that take the ball away in such a lopsided manner usually win. Over the past four seasons, the Chargers are 20-1 when they get at least three takeaways. League-wide in that span, teams have won better than 79 percent of games in which they took the ball away three or more times.

“That’s the biggest thing this year – turnovers,” said Liuget, whose sack-fumble in the fourth quarter was recovered by linebacker Andrew Gachkar. “Our job is to get the ball back to Philip (Rivers) and let them run up the score.”

Rivers directed the offense on a nine-play, 61-yard drive following Weddle’s pick. A 7-yard pass to Randy McMichael gave the Chargers a 10-0 lead two plays into the second quarter.

Most offensive starters – save for wide receiver Vincent Jackson and quarterback Philip Rivers and concussed receiver Malcom Floyd – played the entire first half. The defensive starters went en masse until the two-minute warning.

In all, in the first half, the Chargers did not win at the line of scrimmage on defense. But neither did they completely break.

Dallas ran nine times for 64 yards in the first half, and Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo generally was unfettered – including the nearly seven seconds he had to scramble and find Jason Witten in the back of the end zone for Dallas’ first touchdown, which cut an early Chargers’ lead to 10-7 midway through the second quarter.